For whatever reason this list from the Freedom Forum of seven months ago popped up in my feed recently. The headline says “most famous” while the body of the article merely says “famous political cartoons.”Scott A Leadingham puts his list in chronological order and it is hard to argue with his first and last choices. […]
For whatever reason this list from the Freedom Forum of seven months ago popped up in my feed recently. The headline says “most famous” while the body of the article merely says “famous political cartoons.”Scott A Leadingham puts his list in chronological order and it is hard to argue with his first and last choices. […]
Roberto Sánchez, a left-wing congressman and former minister, campaigns wearing a hulking straw hat — one that is not his own.
It once belonged to Pedro Castillo, the jailed former president of Perú, who won the 2021 election against Keiko Fujimori, the conservative daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, whom Sánchez will also face in a runoff election on Sunday.
The hat, along with Castillo, has become emblematic of the grassroots political movement that Sánchez may carry on should h
Roberto Sánchez, a left-wing congressman and former minister, campaigns wearing a hulking straw hat — one that is not his own.
It once belonged to Pedro Castillo, the jailed former president of Perú, who won the 2021 election against Keiko Fujimori, the conservative daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, whom Sánchez will also face in a runoff election on Sunday.
The hat, along with Castillo, has become emblematic of the grassroots political movement that Sánchez may carry on should he win the highly polarized elections — even as he attempts to soften some of its more radical aspects.
Born in Huaral, a coastal province north of Lima, to a barber and a housemaid, Sánchez shined shoes from age seven to 13. He went on to graduate with a psychology degree from San Marcos University and holds a master’s degree in social policy.
His entire career was built in the public sector including as a congressman, minister of commerce under Castillo, and as president of the Juntos por el Perú (Together for Perú) political party since 2017.
Castillismo, a political movement named for Castillo, has its roots in rural land reform, anti-elitism, and left-wing populism. Some analysts argue that despite its leader’s incarceration for attempting to dissolve Congress in 2022, the movement endures because of the social and economic realities of the country.
“The vote for Castillo and Sánchez does have a real underlying basis. I would not describe it as a protest vote, but rather as a vote born out of desperation and abandonment. It is the vote of Perú’s extremely poor,” Hernán Garrido Lecca, an economist and former health minister (2007-2008), told Perú Reports.
According to Peru’s National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), 4.7% of Perú’s population — approximately 1.6 million people — lived in extreme poverty in 2025, unable to afford even a basic food basket.
Poverty predominantly exists in rural communities in the Andes and the Amazon regions that remain largely disconnected from the economic and political center of the capital Lima.
“Castillismo does not respond to Castillo as a person, but to what he represents — the protest against Lima’s centralism and the abandonment of the regions,” Catherine Lanseros, a Peruvian journalist, told Perú Reports.
Unlike Castillo, Sánchez has sought to present himself as a more institutional and pragmatic left-wing candidate.
He is better educated, more articulate, and a seasoned politician; he made that distinction clear in last week’s debate, attacking Fujimori and her party, Fuerza Popular, for their role in the country’s political instability in recent years.
In an effort to reassure moderates wary of his leftist policies, in the final days of his campaign, Sánchez presented a 114-page government plan promising macroeconomic stability, respect for the Central Bank’s autonomy, and continuity of free trade agreements.
Whether this represents genuine moderation or a last-minute political strategy remains, for many Peruvians, a defining question.
As Lanseros put it: “No matter how many times he rewrites his government proposal, Sánchez cannot deny his essence.”
Featured image: Roberto Sánchez is running for president of Perú in elections on June 7, 2026.
Even television’s most in-demand multi-hyphenates can’t go it alone. In fact, as the creators behind some of Netflix’s flashiest series attest, the secret to success often lies in leaning on the expertise of those around them. That was a major theme during a conversation at Netflix & Deadline Present: The Visionaries featuring Stranger Things’ Matt […]
Even television’s most in-demand multi-hyphenates can’t go it alone. In fact, as the creators behind some of Netflix’s flashiest series attest, the secret to success often lies in leaning on the expertise of those around them. That was a major theme during a conversation at Netflix & Deadline Present: The Visionaries featuring Stranger Things’ Matt […]
Shia LaBeouf has pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery after an incident earlier this year in New Orleans. The Even Stevens actor was arrested in February of this year for hitting people and using anti-gay slurs during Mardi Gras. According to Nola, LaBeouf was handed a six-month suspended sentence with two years’ probation […]
Shia LaBeouf has pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery after an incident earlier this year in New Orleans. The Even Stevens actor was arrested in February of this year for hitting people and using anti-gay slurs during Mardi Gras. According to Nola, LaBeouf was handed a six-month suspended sentence with two years’ probation […]
At first glance, it looks like a lifeless, eons-old rock. So much so that people will stand on it unaware of the life beneath the weight of their feet. The coral ecosystem is teeming with life, among the most diverse ecosystems in the world!
It’s the network of the oceans, much like mycelium is the network of forests. Twenty-five percent of the ocean’s fish depend on coral reefs for food, shelter, and nurseries for their young.
It’s easy to quickly pass by corals, dismissing them as respo
At first glance, it looks like a lifeless, eons-old rock. So much so that people will stand on it unaware of the life beneath the weight of their feet. The coral ecosystem is teeming with life, among the most diverse ecosystems in the world!
It’s the network of the oceans, much like mycelium is the network of forests. Twenty-five percent of the ocean’s fish depend on coral reefs for food, shelter, and nurseries for their young.
It’s easy to quickly pass by corals, dismissing them as responseless vegetation, a garden that fish, rays, and marine mammals cruise through. But the “plants” are animals! It’s all alive.
Isn’t the star coral beautiful!? All of these worms will tuck into a hole and disappear when predators (and snorkelers) get too close.
Now that I know, I slowly move over the coral, looking closely. I always find something beautiful, fascinating, and new to me.
Here’s what I’ve learned.
Hard Corals
Hard coral is composed of calcium carbonate (the rock-like stuff) that forms the framework for thousands of polyp colonies. These polyps are animals with a body and a mouth that feed on plankton and tiny fish. It is these colonies of polyps that form coral.
The healthy coral we see is a result of symbiosis with algae, a relationship that benefits both organisms. The algae live within the polyps and are what give coral its color. Algae produce carbohydrates that the polyps use for food. The coral provides a protected environment for the algae and aids in its photosynthesis.
Soft Corals
Soft corals rely on a flexible, protein-based mesoglea (jelly-like core) reinforced by sclerites, tiny, spiky calcium structures for support. Look at all those tiny polyps on the purple stalks of the sea plume!!
Sea Sponges
Another marine invertebrate that you might not associate with the animal kingdom is the sea sponge. They are filter feeders, structured with canals, chambers, and cavities that enable water to move through the sponge for feeding, gas exchange (“breathing”), and excretion. Sponge larvae are flagellated and can swim; however, adults are non-motile and remain attached to a single spot.
There are flat sponges and tube sponges. They are all so unique in structure, color, pattern, and texture. There are over 5000 known species of sponges inhabiting all of the world’s oceans.
Other Atypical Reef Animals
Some of my other favorite animals in coral reef ecosystems are anemones and sea urchins. Anemones are predatory invertebrate marine animals related to corals and jellyfish. Their mouths are surrounded by stinging tentacles that enable them to prey upon small animals such as fish, crabs, shrimp, and jellyfish. They can be found in deep seas and the intertidal zone, too, where they contract and fold their tentacles into their bodies to avoid drying out until the water returns.
There are 950 species of sea urchins, who like anemones, live from intertidal zones to deep seas. Urchins crawl along on tube feet, feeding on algae and sponges. They come in a variety of colors, long-spined and short-spined, pencil-thick and needle-thin. These dramatic creatures are usually found tucked away within a reef, making them difficult to photograph.
Next time you have the opportunity to see a reef, either below water, from a dock, or tidepooling, stop and stare. You will be amazed!
Pitted sponge, red rope sponge, star coral, mustard coral, feather duster worm, brown encrusting sponge, reef urchin, algae, and a couple of fish.Sea Fan with sponges, algae, and a couple of feather duster worms poking out the bottom.
If you’re interested in purchasing or licensing any images you see here, please email me at SNewenham at exploringnaturephotos.com, and I’ll make it happen.
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EXCLUSIVE: Following its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Vertical has acquired North American distribution rights to drama Clean Hands, the latest feature from writer-director Jake Allyn (Ride). Zach Braff, Esther McGregor, Abigail Spencer, Holt McCallany and Lucas Till star in the film which explores America’s war on drugs from the opposing eyes of […]
EXCLUSIVE: Following its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Vertical has acquired North American distribution rights to drama Clean Hands, the latest feature from writer-director Jake Allyn (Ride). Zach Braff, Esther McGregor, Abigail Spencer, Holt McCallany and Lucas Till star in the film which explores America’s war on drugs from the opposing eyes of […]
“I feel the answer to your question will always exist outside the world as it presents itself, beyond the matters of the day, distinct from the temporal. It will be found within the mysterious, the unsettled, and the sacred, that faraway and intangible place where truth and music and your father reside.”
— The Red Hand Files, Issue #323
“I feel the answer to your question will always exist outside the world as it presents itself, beyond the matters of the day, distinct from the temporal. It will be found within the mysterious, the unsettled, and the sacred, that faraway and intangible place where truth and music and your father reside.”
Ordinarily cheap Matsuya opens a high-priced Matsuya inside another upscale Matsuya.
Japanese department stores have food departments on their basement levels, and naturally the fancier department stores offer fancier foods. So it might surprise some shoppers at the Matsuya department store in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza neighborhood to find that one of Japan’s cheapest restaurant chains now has a presence in the store’s food section.
June 10 was the grand opening of Matsuya Premium Ginza, the new d
Ordinarily cheap Matsuya opens a high-priced Matsuya inside another upscale Matsuya.
Japanese department stores have food departments on their basement levels, and naturally the fancier department stores offer fancier foods. So it might surprise some shoppers at the Matsuya department store in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza neighborhood to find that one of Japan’s cheapest restaurant chains now has a presence in the store’s food section.
June 10 was the grand opening of Matsuya Premium Ginza, the new department store spinoff of the Matsuya gyudon/beef bowl restaurant chain (which is a separate company from the Matsuya department store). As the name implies, Matsuya Premium is positioning itself as a more luxurious, upgraded version of the Matsuya restaurant chain, offering takeout meals exclusive to Matsuya Premium, such as beef bowls made with Kobe beef.
Obviously, Matsuya Premium’s prices are higher too. At a normal Matsuya, for example, the standard beef bowl is just 460 yen (US$3), but Matsuya Premium’s Kobe beef version will cost you 1,390 yen. There’s a gap in price between the price for regular Matsuya’s tomato sauce hamburger steak set (1,180 yen) and Matsuya Premum’s Kuroge Wagyu Hamburger Steak Bento (1,681 yen).
Here’s the thing though. Regular Matsuya’s food isn’t just cheap, it’s also really tasty. Sure, the restaurant chain is friendly to your wallet, but it’s just as kind to your taste buds, which raises a question.
If regular, cheap Matsuya is already so good, is there any point in paying extra for Matsuya Premium?
To investigate, our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa sprang into action, first stopping by Matsuya Premium to pick up a Kobe beef gyudon and Kuroge Wagyu Hamburger Steak, then swinging by a regular Matsuya to procure their more plebian counterparts as well.
▼ Matsuya Premium on the left, basic Matsuya on the right
The Matsuya Premium items do come in more elegant-looking containers, but visually there isn’t much difference to be seen with the food itself.
But beef is always beautiful, and we’re paying extra for what’s supposed to be the special flavor of the Premium items, not enhanced aesthetics. So now it was time for Seiji to taste-test the different versions back-to-back.
He started with the beef bowl, and right away he could taste that the Kobe beef version has something the regular Matsuya beef bowl doesn’t. The marbled quality of the Kobe beef gives it a much heavier dose of umami flavor, which melts in your mouth and merges with the flavors of the stock that the beef is simmered in. That combination danced across his taste buds and fired up his taste buds with a greater intensity than the regular Matsuya gyudon, in which the meaty flavor of the beef is less pronounced and the stock plays a more prominent role.
Moving on to the hamburger steaks, the most striking difference here was the texture of the meat. The Matsuya Premium version is tenderer, and it’s juicier too. Switching to the regular Matsuya hamburger steak after trying a bite of the Premium, Seiji couldn’t help but feel a that the cheaper version is drier and tougher, and, with such a closely-timed comparison, had a twinge of frozen-food feeling to it, he says.
So Seiji is happy to report that Matsuya Premium isn’t just charging more because of its location, and that it genuinely does deliver a more refined eating experience than what you can find at a regular Matsuya. The new venture might not quite match the value-for-money that standard Matsuya is known for, but Matsuya Premium delivers on giving you the quality you’re paying for.
Shop information
Matsuya Premium Ginza / 店名 松屋PREMIUM銀座店
Address: Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku, Ginza 3-6-1, Matsuya Ginza basement level 1
住所 東京都中央区銀座3-6-1松屋銀座 地下1階
Open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Sundays and final day of consecutive holidays)
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